State lawmakers shutting you out again

These are troubling times for those who advocate for an open government.

Not only is the federal government undertaking extraordinary measures to track everything from phone activity to Internet surfing in a purported effort to stop terrorists, our own Ohio government continues to take larger and larger steps severely limiting scrutiny of its activities to attract new jobs.

What's worse, few of you seem to be overly concerned.

We obviously support efforts to keep Americans safe and create new jobs, but we must ask where our society will end up if we continue to allow our government to track us with limited oversight while keeping even more secrets.

The most recent Ohio transgressions are coming from Republicans, primarily in the Ohio Senate, who quietly added a sweeping new open meeting exception for economic development to the state budget. (Yes, lawmakers love adding pet ideas to budgets to avoid full legislative hearings and essentially coerce a "yes" vote.)

Some lawmakers apparently think the public has no business hearing the details of proposed projects in their communities or neighborhoods, including discussion of tax incentives or other public financing. Given the robust economic activity evident in many parts of Ohio, we're at a loss to understand how current law is hindering developments. Even if such a need could be established, it would need to be far more narrowly defined to avoid abuse.

This last-minute amendment comes on the heels of a quickly approved bill preventing Ohio Auditor Dave Yost from auditing $100 million a year in state liquor profits being funneled to JobsOhio, the public-private economic development company central to Gov. John Kasich's agenda. You might recall Yost's recent standoff with his fellow Republicans over a subpoena he delivered for financial records from JobsOhio. Only a private audit will tell us how this agency will spend $100 million or more a year.

Then there's the Ohio State University Board of Trustees' ongoing disregard for open meetings law as it met in private last week to discuss what retiring president E. Gordon Gee described as the "the academic and social and cultural and financial direction of the institution." That's not one the allowable reasons for a private board meeting under Ohio law, nor a conversation that needs to be carried out in private anyway. The university later told The Columbus Dispatch the closed meeting was allowed to protect "trade secrets."

These recent developments come on the heels of a promising Ohio bill proposed by state Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, which would require more open meetings while increasing penalties for violations. Unscheduled discussions about public business among the majority of members of a public body, including information-gathering sessions, would be required to be public. We fear Jones' bill won't make it far in the current Legislature.

As the Ohio House and Senate work in the coming days, we urge them to remove the economic development exception from the budget and subject it to the full legislative process.

It's bad enough to shut the public out from more meetings. It's unacceptable to hide from voting on the issue on its own merit.

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State lawmakers shutting you out again

These are troubling times for those who advocate for an open government.